The planning and preparations for the journey through the wilderness are done and Hashem presents one last important element, a call to order. In Ch10 Hashem tells Moshe to make two silver trumpets (horns) detailing their usage, rather than their design, and this provides plenty of material for our sages to discuss their significance and when and how they were to be blown. Here we also have the source for the different sounds we hear from the Shofar on Rosh Hashana of the single blast of Tekiah and the jittered blast of Teruah, even though here the discussion is of the trumpets rather than the Shofar. Rashi explains that in the wilderness the blowing of tekiah was on one trumpet to call the leaders for a meeting, two trumpets to call everyone and the tekiah, truah, tekiah was used to announce that it was time to pack up and move camp. In addition Hashem commands the use of the trumpets in the future both as an alarm call when going out to war and a call of joy on festive days.
Rav S R Hirsch examines the topic in great detail beginning, as he often does, with the significance of the words themselves in this case “chazotzra” for a trumpet and tekiah and truah for the sounds. The term “chatotzra” is an emphasized expansion of the word “chatzer” meaning a courtyard or gathering and hinting at the ability of the trumpet to announce within it’s boundary of sound and create a local community. A single trumpet to call to those singled out – the leaders, a dual trumpet to call everyone to hint that in reality everyone is important just as as the two trumpets were identical.
In R Hirsch’s view the use of the two words for the sounds “tekiah” and “truah” clearly indicates two different sounds. The tekiah the long single blast indicated from the word itself used in Hebrew to describe banging a nail into a wall or a stake into the ground, symbolizing security and continuity. Truah on the other hand from the word “raua” – something disjointed and broken symbolizing something more fearful. The Talmud Rosh Hashana learns from the verses here that the call for the camp to pack up was “tekiah – truah –tekiah” similar to the tekiah enveloped sequences we blow on Rosh Hashana. R Hirsch suggests that this was to indicate – 1. Tekiah – wakeup call 2. Truah – dismantle everything. 3. Tekiah – when ready we will move as one unit. By the way the Chassidic interpretations lean more to tekiah – glue us together, truah – even though we are many individuals, tekiah we are one nation.
R Hirsch notes that in the case of truah to warn of war the Torah says “when war comes upon you” not as we usually find when you go out to war. This possibly indicates the use of the trumpets in a broken truah as an alarm or siren. Strikingly this has filtered through to modern Israel where the danger alarm is a rising and falling siren rather than the continuous siren used on memorial days. Lastly the trumpets were used as a call on festivals and happy days. Here there are many suggestions to the significance of happy days (yom simchatchem) whether this is referring to Shabbat, or perhaps a hint of Chanuka and Purim to come or a general call to blow your trumpet on happy occasions and when you feel good.
There have been some modern Rabbinical proposals to bringing back the silver trumpet to be blown in troubled times but it has not yet happened. Interestingly the mitzva for the shofar is for us to hear the shofar, for the trumpet it was making the noise, perhaps difficult to differentiate. Opposite where we live in the open fields of Netanya there is a club which often has late night noisy events and we have to phone the local 106 help line to get it stopped. They make the noise and we hear it till the police arrive.